A Tale Of Two Trials

John chapter 18, beginning at verse 12. So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him.

First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people.

Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple. By the way, I think that's John. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest.

But Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door and brought Peter in.

The servant girl at the door said to Peter, You also are not one of this mass disciples, are you? He said, I am not.

But a service and officers had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

Changed the scene. The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all Jews come together.

I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.

When they said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, Is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus answered him, If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong.

But if what I said is right, why do you strike me? Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself, so they said to him, You also are not one of his disciples, are you?

He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative that the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, Did I not see you in the garden with him?

Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. That is the word of the living God. Please be seated.

Welcome to the Evans family who are in town from Birmingham. Good to see you, to see y'all. Amen. Amen. Amen. Very few of us will ever be on trial in our judicial system.

Those of you who have can certainly testify to how stressing this is. You see, your freedom is at stake. And there isn't a whole lot you yourself can do about it.

If you testify, now you can't be made to incriminate yourself, but if you do, all you can do is tell the truth. If you are innocent, you can only pray.

Your lawyer makes a good case, and the judge or jury believes it. Your fate is not in your own hands. Yet now we see Jesus entering into multiple trials.

Jesus. The just before the unjust. In whose hands is his fate? Jesus shows us how to stand when we are on trial before an unjust world.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is very simple. Are we ready to take the stand? Lord may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may I don't think we see Jesus more regal as our king than here at his trials.

His composure, his control are beyond human ability. He may be under arrest, but he's in control. Now, there are actually three trials.

Jesus has three trials, and one referral. They take place all that this faithful night. One trials before Annas, one trial before Caiaphas.

Then he has a trial before Pilate, the Roman governor, who sends him to Herod the king to be rid of him. But then Herod sends him back to Pilate.

Because he needs Pilate. They need Pilate to render the ultimate judgment. Now, John doesn't tell us about all of that.

John only concerns himself with two trials. The one before Annas, the high priest, and the one before Pilate, the Roman governor. He's probably figuring that the other gospels, remember John is the last gospel to be written.

Probably figuring that it had been covered by the other three writers. So, he wanted to focus on this particular section with Annas and with Pilate.

And what becomes very clear, and you see it, you know it, is that there's a conspiracy. A total miscarriage of justice. Because Jesus had to go.

Righteousness had to go. Ultimate holiness had to go. God had to go.

But in this passage, there are actually two trials happening at the same time. Jesus versus the world. Peter versus the world.

See how far we get. First, we have to notice that Jesus, and this hit me. Jesus is bound. Like any common criminal, the king of all the earth has his hands or his arms bound together with ropes.

As if he would attempt to get away. They didn't know that he would have just gone with them. Walking casually.

He didn't struggle. Remember, he wouldn't let Peter defend him. What makes them think he will defend himself? He stretched out his hands, and he went willingly.

He's the lamb of Isaiah 53, being led to the slaughter. Now, here's the irony.

That the one who said that he came to bind the strong man, Satan, is himself in bonds. It is horribly ironic that the one whose truth would set us free is having his freedom taken away.

He willingly accepts bondage for the glory of his father that we who trust in him might be pardoned and freed.

Can you see it, child of God? Your savior is being led away in the dark for you. His bondage for your freedom.

How will you live in this freedom that he gives you? How are you living in the freedom that he's given you?

I'm reminding you of the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians, Galatians 5.1. He says, For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

In that passage, Paul is talking about we are free from legalism. We are free from trying to earn God's love and blessings by our performance.

If I do good, God will bless me. If I have my quiet time today, God will bless me. If I give in the offering, God will bless me.

Like pulling, like I watched those folk pull the slot machines. Those one-armed bandits. We put our acts, our works in, pull the arm, and pray for a blessing.

Thank God we've been delivered from that kind of thinking. Christ has set us free to follow and obey him, yes.

But even when we fail, we are still his. Even when you haven't had your quiet time, he's still yours.

He'll still bless you. He'll still walk with you. He'll still be your hope and your strength. Even when you miss, oh my gosh, did you miss two days in a row?

Not saying you should, but if you did. Don't let Satan enslave your mind with God helps those who help themselves.

That's not true at all. God helps those who acknowledge how sinful they are and come to Jesus for help. God helps those who realize, I can't help me.

Not in the ultimate sense. Oh yeah, you can do some good things. You know, you can get up and do, yeah, yeah. But ultimately for God to please God, there's nothing you can do in your own strength because you are hopelessly flawed.

And you come to Jesus. See, when you recognize how flawed you are and how good God is, you come to Jesus.

And he helps those who can't help themselves but cry out to him. Christ's bondage delivers us from bondage to our good works.

But Paul says in Galatians again, same chapter, verse 13, chapter 5. For you will call to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Christ's bondage sets us free to serve ourselves. He calls us free to serve us.

But the freedom is to serve each other. Look at the person to your right, to your left, and across the aisle.

You are here, listen, to serve them. This your church? You are here to serve them. But what about me?

And they are here to serve you. But the focus is on me before God giving myself to serve them. He will take care of me.

When the body is working as it ought, everybody gets cared for because Christ is present. Teaching us how to love and serve one another.

We're not to seek. Notice that passage. We're not to use our freedom in Christ as an opportunity for the flesh. In other words, for your own self-gratification.

It really isn't about you. I know that's cliche, but man, it keeps popping up in the Bible. It really is. His bondage is so that you and I might be free, be at liberty, be free from the bondage of our sins.

Be free from having no way of seeing God and knowing God and glorifying God. We are now free because of his sacrifice so that we can give ourselves away.

We can follow him in giving ourselves away. That's freedom. When you don't have to think about yourself all the time and how you're going to get yours and how you're going to make it happen.

How are you going to be in the room where it happens? I love that from that play. I love it. I want to be in the room where it happens. Hamilton? Y'all didn't see Hamilton? Never mind. Okay. It's great to know that my destiny isn't all in my hands.

And about how good I can be, how sharp I can be, how smart I can be. Am I in the right place at the right time? I'm in his place at his time. I'm free.

And I'm free to serve you because my identity is not in what you think of me. And my identity is what he thinks of me and what he has made me.

So I'm free. I'm free to scrub the floors. I'm free to scrub the toilets. Because the world thinks its identity is in those things.

Your position. Your education. Who is under you? That's how the world thinks, but that's not how we think.

Right? We can be the lowliest of the lowly. The slave of all. Because we know that we've been set free in Jesus.

So we can put others before ourselves. Second thing I want you to know. Jesus is bound. He's being led away. Second, we see the judge of all the earth is placed on trial.

Now here it gets interesting. He's placed on trial. But you have to jump down a little. If you have your Bible in front of you. You're going to jump down to verses 12 through 14. Then 19 through 24.

Because he breaks it up with Peter in between. So we're going to focus on Jesus for a minute. Now we talk about reforming our criminal justice system. Here's a system that needed reforming. Jesus is brought before Annas.

Annas, the Bible says, John says, is the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. So the question is, why is he being brought before Annas if Caiaphas is the high priest?

Meaning he would be the leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin. The ruling council of the Jews. So why isn't he going before Caiaphas? He's got the power, right? Yes and no.

You see, Annas was the former high priest. He had been deposed by the Romans. The Roman governor before Pontius Pilate deposed him as a show of Roman might, Roman power.

We're going to tell you who's going to run this joint. So they pulled him down and they put Caiaphas in his place. Now listen, Annas, for the people, he's still the high priest.

To the Jews, he's not. But the Jewish people respect and revere him. And so therefore Jesus goes to him because he's actually the power behind the high priest.

He's so powerful. This guy is so powerful. Five of his sons served as high priest after him and now his son-in-law. So this guy has been the power behind the high priesthood for years and for years, for several years.

And now, so Jesus goes before him. Now listen, now John says something here about Caiaphas. He has to remind us about Caiaphas because he says something about him way back in chapter 11.

Back in chapter 11, where our Lord had resurrected his friend Lazarus from the dead, the Jewish leaders were trying to figure out, remember, how to contain the people's enthusiasm.

Because they were crazy about Jesus and they wanted to make him king. And so the Sanhedrin got together. And they were afraid that the people would revolt against the Romans and make Jesus king.

And then the Romans would put their foot down on their neck, remove their power and their nation. You see that all that's being talked about back, way back in chapter 11.

And so Caiaphas stands up. I'm sorry. He stands, yeah, he stands up and he says to the guys, y'all don't know nothing.

That's basically what he says to them. This is verses 47 to 53. He says, y'all don't know what y'all talking about. Don't you know that it's expedient for one man to die and not the whole nation?

So what he was saying was, let's make Jesus the scapegoat. Let's get him taken out of the way so the nation is protected. He's talking about having Jesus put to death.

That's where the conspiracy begins. Let's get rid of him and the Romans will be happy. Don't worry about it. Just let's get rid of him. And what John says was that Annas prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, but not just for the nation, but for all the children of God to be gathered.

He didn't realize it. You remember that phrase? I'm a poet and don't even know it. He was a prophet and didn't even know it. He spoke better than he knew because God was at work to allow Jesus to be put to death, not just for the nation of Israel, but for all those who will call upon his name around the world throughout all eternity.

And so John is making a point. This is a Caiaphas that Jesus will ultimately have to go see.

But right now, right now, he's got to go through this guy, his father-in-law, who lived across the courtyard named Annas.

Hmm. Wow. Have you been to the cross lately? You see, he says Jesus will gather in all the children of God via his death on the cross.

What does that tell us about the cross? The cross is a family reunion. We become family at the cross.

When you go to the cross, you will understand the church better. When you see the cross the way you're supposed to see the cross, you will look at your brothers and sisters, no matter what race they're from, what culture they're from, what socioeconomic they're from, what nation they're from, what language they speak.

Are they illegal immigrants or legal immigrants? Y'all got real quiet. If they're brothers and sisters in Christ, you will look at them and you recognize, it's at the cross that you were made family.

The cross says we are all one who believe in Jesus. Jesus. The cross said that God is our father and Jesus is our elder brother. That we have been gathered together at the cross.

When I go to the cross, I begin to see the church rightly. Here's the problem. We tend, we get all into ourselves about the church. The church ain't this.

The church needs to be. And I got hurt at the church. And I'm mad at the church. And I don't want all that kind of crazy talk. And it is crazy talk.

Why? Because you don't see the church rightly. The church is made up of people just like you. Very flawed. Very messed up.

In process. Growing in grace every day, Lord willing. But that's your family. When people tell me they don't want to, I meet people all the time now who keep telling me they don't, they don't want to, they don't go, they don't, I don't go to church.

But I'm a Christian. And I'm not, I can't say about where their heart is with God. I can't, I can't see that. I can tell you where their head is though. It's not in a good place.

They don't recognize where the church is. Family. Family. Family. Family. I look at you, I don't see just a group of people.

I see family. And family gets on your nerves sometimes. Family also has great joy.

I can count on family. When I'm hurting, I can count on family. When I need a few dollars, I can count on family. You know, family's there for each other.

I remember when I was a kid, there was this, this family in our neighborhood, the facets. And they had, I think they had five sons and one daughter.

And one thing I knew about the, and I was cool with one of the youngest sons, my boy Hans. Me and Hans were tight. I knew one thing. If you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them.

You didn't mess with the facet family. These boys are big. They were, I mean, they grew up on cornbread and, and, and pig feet and, and collard greens.

Those are big boys. And you, and you knew that if you mess with one of them, the family would gather. The family was surround family. That's, that's the church.

When one of us is hurting, we surround. We surround them. When one of us is attacked, we come to their defense. If they're being attacked unjustly, we, we should hold it now.

That's family. When I go to the cross, and I see Jesus, and I understand what the cross is doing. Yes, my sins, but also gathering of people, of people who will be the children of God.

I, my love for you grows. And it should, if you see the cross. I think a lot of times, I'm learning more and more that too many of us don't see the cross very well.

Because we don't love his church. That's part of what it means to be a Christian.

To love the church, the people, the family of God. So the cross would be that magnet that draws all together. Jesus is before Annas.

And it's interesting. This is an interesting spot here. Because Annas is, this is a pre-trial kind of.

It's a trial, but kind of a pre-trial. Because again, Caiaphas will have the last word. But there's all kinds of things going wrong here. The whole situation is very problematic.

First, it was wrong to hold the trial at night. And, and that was not to be done. Second thing is, you couldn't, you couldn't hold a, a capital trial like that before a feast holiday.

They wanted you to have time to think about the fact, you're going to put this guy to death. And they do everything wrong to get rid of Jesus. Caiaphas, who I will call the high priest emeritus, has two things on his mind.

You're just Jesus' disciples and his teaching. Maybe he's wondering, how many disciples do you have? Because you got to figure, if he's got a whole lot, this could be a, this, the revolt could be on.

We got to be careful here. Maybe, we don't know exactly what he meant by his disciples, but it seems he may be thinking about who they are, how many you have. And the Lord doesn't answer his question.

Because again, John 17, he's protecting his people. But, but the truth was Annas was getting, was attempting to get Jesus to incriminate himself.

Tell us about your teaching. And that was against Jewish law too. You see, we'd call it taking the fifth, right? When you take the fifth, you're saying, I refuse to testify on the grounds I may incriminate myself.

And no one can make you do, say anything, and no one can judge you for it. We judge people in the, in the, in the community, but the, not the court.

Taking the fifth is not incriminating. In law. These guys were breaking the law by trying to get Jesus to say something to incriminate himself, and that was against their law too.

They were supposed to bring witnesses. They were supposed to bring witnesses, first of all, for Jesus, and their witnesses against Jesus, in that order. because your man is presumed, this is where we get it from, innocent and to prove guilty.

Presume innocent before proving guilty. And so Jesus is standing there and, you know, he gets kind of sassy. I love the Lord.

He said, you know, everything I've said, I've said publicly. And even when he did speak in private, he said the same things he said publicly. He said, listen, you want to know what I said?

You want to know about my teaching? Ask the people who heard me. They can tell you. In other words, bring witnesses who heard me. Jesus is standing his ground.

He's standing in, he's looking Annas in the face. He's not moved by the fact that Annas has power. He's not impressed with his authority. Jesus is standing, listen to this, he's standing on his own righteousness.

He's challenging them that if I said anything wrong or did anything wrong, you come and bear witness to it. Now, Jesus is perfect.

Never sinned, never did or said anything wrong, but he's teaching us something here. Your public testimony is important.

Now, here's the thing. We're not perfect. But it doesn't, but perfection is not the goal. Consistency is.

When you fall, do you admit it? Do you confess? Yes. Well, do you try to do that chuck and jive thing? Oh, well, it was really, it was because I was, yeah, my, yeah, I had a bad day.

That's why I did it, officer. I was, I know I drove too fast, but I had a bad day. It's not my fault. Or, do we admit we screwed up? Part of our righteousness is one, depending on Christ's righteousness to, for our standing before God, but part of our righteousness is practical, is living in a way that is righteous and just before the world.

When the world looks at you, don't be able to say, yeah, we got, they're, we know they're, yeah, she's, Rachel's got faults. But if they watch her, will they see a consistent life that follows Jesus?

Will she be incriminated by that? The world would always find fault with you. I can find fault with you. And you can find fault with me.

But will we admit we're wrong? Will we admit we've messed up? Our righteousness is safe in Jesus.

Before God, my righteousness is perfect. I don't have to do anything to prove anything to Him. Do you know that? Jesus already did it for you.

He proved it for you. My righteousness is in Him. But as I walk in this life, His righteousness begins to get played out in me so that now my life is being changed so that I begin to bear a consistent consistent, not perfect, but consistent witness before the world.

And when the world says, is he a Christian? Is he really a follower of Jesus? There should be enough evidence to convict me. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, by the way, there should be enough evidence to convict me that yes, I am a follower of Jesus.

Jesus shows us that in His righteousness, He's perfect. But it's in His righteousness that we're made whole as well. Hmm.

Well, real quick. Our boy Peter. Hmm. Jesus is on trial. He's winning.

Actually, Peter now is on trial for his faith in Jesus. He didn't know it was coming. Peter thought he had it all together.

Remember, Peter, Jesus told Peter, you're going to, hey, you're going to drop the ball, man, you're going to deny me. And Peter's like, no! If all of these knuckleheads deny you, I will never deny you.

I am Peter the Great. I will, I will even die with you. And Jesus says, dude, before the cock crows three times, you're going to deny you even know me.

Peter is now in the mix, as M.C. Hammer said. John is, we believe it's John that's likely with him. John is known to the high priest and gets Peter brought into the courtyard.

So, the courtyard is, there's a, there's like, there's buildings here, it seems. One is where Annas lives, others where Caiaphas lives, and there's a courtyard in between.

And they're, and they're doing this pre-trial in this courtyard, and Peter bravely, by the way, bravely follows his Lord.

Now, you got to give him props, y'all. Don't beat up on Peter too bad. I wouldn't have followed, I would have been home somewhere. He sticks close to Jesus. He and John.

And he, and John gets him into the courtyard, and they're listening to the trial. But here's the, here's where things begin to break down. Peter is asked, hey, aren't you, aren't you one of those, one of those, you know, followers of Jesus?

Aren't you one of those Jesus brothers? And he says, I am not. I can almost see him. I am not. You know, somebody else comes along and says, he's over there by the fire, he's cold, so he's trying to, he'll, yeah, hey guys, how you doing?

Yeah, what's up, man? Jezadiah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, how you doing? Hey, what's up, Cyrus, good to see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just, you know, he's with the boys, just hanging out. And they're like, hold it.

Ain't you one of them boys? Who, me? No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Peter goes three times. The last time the Bible says in Matthew that he cussed, he took an oath, as it were.

I, by the name of God, I do not know the man. That's in Matthew 26, 74. I do not know the man.

What happened? Remember Peter with the sword cutting off the ear? Braves all get out. Went Zorro on folk. But now, a little girl at the door confronts him.

He's all to pieces. He's, what's happening to the man? Jesus told us why Peter fell. This is where I want to spend the rest of our time, my next few minutes.

Two things the Bible shows us clearly why Peter fell. One, a lack of humility. Two, a lack of spiritual preparation. Watchfulness, prayer, faith.

In John 13, our Lord warned Peter that he would fail. I just quoted that a minute ago. But Peter believed in his own goodness. He believed in his own commitment. He believed in his own strength.

He didn't need nobody. He didn't need no help. Peter believed that he could do it. Now, I know none of you can relate to that, I'm sure, but maybe one or two.

How often, listen, how often do we put ourselves in situations where we're going to the edge of Christian freedom and we believe we will not fall over the edge?

Examples. We're like children playing ball in the house, knowing that we're not supposed to, but we believe that we got everything under control because I can throw the ball accurately.

My aim is perfect. And of course, you know what happens, right? The ball hits something that's not supposed to hit. Crash, bang, crack it up, you know, and it's mom's favorite whatever, and here comes mom and dad when they hear the noise.

What happened? And what do kids do? I don't know. That's us. We play to the edge of our Christian freedom and then we fall into the pit and we go, and we say, what happened?

We go, I don't know. I don't know how it happened. It happened because you thought more highly of yourself than you ought to have thought. We drink too much but don't believe we will get drunk.

I'm looking for you. I'll find you. We drive too fast often but can't believe we got a ticket. We put ourselves in compromising positions but believe we won't commit sexual sin.

We daydream about or continuously watch things that depict evil in God's sight but don't believe we will be affected by it.

Are we not entertained? And then, I'm just talking about us, okay?

I'm us. And then we wonder why we have so little desire to read God's word. You wonder why Jesus doesn't seem real to us or near us.

we wonder why our passion for Jesus is so weak. We wonder why we keep falling into sin sometimes, into sin and sometimes it's the same sin over and over again.

We think too highly of our own ability. Peter is our hero. But here's the thing.

If we humble ourselves before the Lord and in his mercy and grace he will lift us up. That involves admitting we have sinful struggles but it's more than that.

Christians in this country we love admitting that we're sinners. We do. And, okay. But that's not that's not it.

Yeah, admitting you have a problem yeah. Yeah man, I really struggle with my temper man you know. I really struggle with you know. I really can't. I just find myself just wasting so much time and I just struggle.

Yeah, okay. But that's not the whole thing. You confessed it but what are you going to do about it?

Right. John the Baptist told the people bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. You see, true repentance is infused with the grace of God.

True repentance has encountered the kindness of God at the cross of Christ. It's his kindness that leads us to repentance.

True repentance sees the glory, sees the love and says, oh God forgive me for specific sin. Not in general, specific stuff I'm dealing with and then says I hate my sin.

Not myself. We don't hate ourselves but we do but we should hate our sin because God Jesus died to set us free from it.

He is holy and glorious and anything unlike him should move us away. We don't want to be anything anywhere near stuff that's not like him.

And so it moves us now to want to do something about it. Hating our sin by turning to our Savior who loves us so we can follow him out of it and away from it.

Now listen, that takes humility. Peter wasn't there yet. He got there but this leads to the next last point.

This leads to our spiritual, the fact that we're spiritually unprepared too often. Peter wasn't watching. He was oblivious to the spiritual dangers around him.

He didn't fall on his face and pray, Lord deliver me from evil and the evil one. He didn't do that. Our Lord had warned him in Matthew 26 in the garden of Gethsemane. He says to them, and he came to the disciples, found them sleeping.

He said to Peter, so could you not watch with me in prayer one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh, the flesh is your fallen human nature.

All because you are in Christ, you don't get rid of your fallen human nature until you go to be with Jesus. You still have the flesh. He's not really talking about the human body, he's talking about the fallen nature attached to our humanity.

We are in Christ, yes, we are a new creation in Christ, but we're still fallen. The flesh is weak. The flesh wars against the spirit, Paul says.

And that by the spirit, the spirit of God. So look at it like this. Before you came to Christ, you were in the flesh totally. And all you wanted to do was do whatever God said don't do.

You couldn't please God in the flesh. You can't please God in that condition. When you come to Christ, you are given a new nature, but you still have the flesh. And so now, you can obey God, but you still struggle to disobey God.

That's the Christian life. When we go to Jesus, when he comes again, we are recreated finally in all of the glory, we'll be fully out of the flesh and in the spirit as it were, and so now we will never displease him ever again.

We're in the middle time where the flesh and the spirit of God are warring. And the spirit of God is stronger, don't get me wrong, but the issue becomes our will.

Will I surrender to the Lord at this moment, or will I surrender to my flesh, which has been a habit for many years, depending on when you got saved.

Jesus says, watch and pray. our problem is we're not woke. Church, we're not spiritually woke.

And that's why many of us fall over the same thing. That's what's happening to the church in America. It's not spiritually woke. It's trying to be woke otherwise, but we're talking about spiritually woke.

We're not alert to the work of the enemy around us. We're not alert to the weakness that lives in all of us. We're not alert. And how do we know we're not alert?

Because we're not praying. The prayer, prayer, is how we stay alert. Prayer brings us back to the word.

It brings us back to meditation upon Christ. It brings us back to who he is. It keeps us leaning on the everlasting arms. Prayer continually tells God I'm weak.

That's why Paul said we should pray without ceasing because we're always weak. Too often we're just asleep.

And we're asleep at our various screens, amusing ourselves to death. And so we fall prey. to the enemy, to our own weakness because we're not paying attention.

We're not looking around. We're not presenting. We wake up in the morning and present our bodies to God as living sacrifice. We present my eyes, my mind, my lips, my body to him.

Lord, be glorified in me today. Deliver me from the evil one. Oh, Lord, every day. So when I leave the house, you ain't got to leave the house, but let's just say, so when I leave the house, I'm going in the joy of the Lord, but I'm alert.

My eyes are open to what's happening around me. Peter fell because he didn't, he wasn't walking in humility, and he wasn't spiritually prepared.

So he put himself in a compromising position, but he was unprepared for the pressure of the world. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to meddle just for a minute and hope you can forgive me if I, if I offend you, I'm not trying to, but I'm trying to warn you.

Not threaten, warn. It's a difference. Parents, know your children.

Some of them are not ready to go to a non-Christian college or university. Don't send them.

they're not ready. Know your children from the, from, from here to here. Give them the good news.

Model for them the truth. Attach them to the church. Really important. Attach them to the body of Christ. Let the community be a place where they're encouraged and strengthened. Watch them carefully.

See them, are they growing in grace? Because if you send them off to a university or a college that is not professor so-and-so is going to ruin them.

The community, now I'm not saying Christian schools have it all together all the time, so don't go there with me. But know your children, are they prepared?

prepared. We don't send children into battle. We send mature people, supposedly. Just, you know, listen to me.

Just think about it. But are you, everyone, are you prepared for battle? Are you being prepared?

Are you living in humility before the Lord who loves you? Are you living in humility? You can be real before him. He knows about you anyway. You can be real before us because he knows all about you.

You're not hiding anything. Be real. You're struggling. Yeah. Find some foe. Brothers, you heard we talked about this today, men. Men in your life, be real.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time. Before you go on the stand, your lawyer will prepare you.

Jesus is the greatest lawyer who's ever lived. He stands between you and God, the Father. He wants to prepare you, not just before the Father, no, but for the world.

He wants to prepare you so that when you step out of your front door or when you wake up in the morning, you're ready to engage because you're spiritually woke.

Two trials. one was courageous, one perjured himself. He lied.

Peter lied. One was triumphant, one failed. But here's the thing, Jesus didn't turn his back on Peter.

Peter. He comes for you. You'll see it. He comes for you. And stands him up again. And equips him and sends him out.

Maybe you fell. Maybe you perjured yourself. Talk to Jesus about it. He'll pick you up. And let him prepare you for the battle.

because we're all on trial. Father, help us. Help us.

Thank you that we know that you will and that you are. May we withstand the temptations of the world by relying upon him who did not fail.

teach us more and more how to rely on Jesus. Deliver us from mediocrity. Deliver us from the world's amusements.

Deliver us from our pride and ego. May we humble ourselves before you and watch you lift us up.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.